The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for hand motion detection and handwriting recognition generally.
The following U.S. patents are believed to represent the current state of the art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,159,321; 5,247,137; 5,294,792; 5,434,371; 5,453,758; 5,517,579; 5,587,558; 5,598,187; 5,781,661; 5,902,968; 5,981,884; 6,084,557; 6,130,666;
The following PCT International Publications are believed to represent the current state of the art: WO 94/09447; WO 94/18663; WO 95/21436; WO 99/22338;
The present invention seeks to provide improved apparatus and methods for hand motion detection and handwriting recognition as well as hand held computing and communication devices employing such apparatus and methods.
There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for handwriting recognition including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output and a handwritten multiple character recognizer receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for handwriting recognition including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output and a handwritten character recognizer receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for hand motion tracking including a handheld device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a proportionally normalized velocity indicating output and a hand motion tracker receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a tracking output indication.
There is further provided in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for hand motion tracking including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output and a hand motion tracker receiving the non-user specific output and providing a tracking output indication.
There is also provided in accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output, a handwritten character recognizer receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication and a hand motion tracker receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a tracking output indication.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention an apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output, a handwritten character recognizer receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication and a hand motion tracker receiving the non-user specific output and providing a tracking output indication.
There is also provided in accordance with yet a further preferred embodiment of the present invention a pen computer including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry located within the hand-held device and receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a non-user specific output, a handwritten character recognizer located within the hand-held device and receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication and a computer located within the hand-held device for receiving the character recognition output indication as performing computer operations in response thereto.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a pen communicator including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry located within the hand-held device and receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a proportionally normalized velocity indicating output, a handwritten character recognizer located within the hand-held device and receiving the proportionally normalized velocity indicating output and providing a character recognition output indication, and a communication device located within the hand-held device for receiving the character recognition output indication and performing communication operations in response thereto.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the accelerometer includes a plurality of accelerometers providing outputs to acceleration processing circuitry, which provides the acceleration indicating output.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the computation circuitry is also operable to perform at least one of Calculator, Database, Personal Information Management (PIM) and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functionalities, including at least one of address and phone book, data-bank, calendar, time management, calculator, expenses tracking and management, xe2x80x9cto do listxe2x80x9d management, note and memo taking, dictionary, translator and speller, smart-card, magnetic card, credit-card, electronic-wallet, remote-control and smart key functionalities and to provide a computation output resulting therefrom.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the apparatus for handwriting recognition also includes communication circuitry.
Preferably, the communication circuitry provides functionality for at least one of a telephone, paging, SMS, WAP, Email, Internet browsing and POTS functions.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the apparatus for handwriting recognition also includes at least one of a microphone, a speaker, an earphone, an audio interface, an audio processor, a digital signal processor, a display, an image processor, a control circuitry, a CPU, a MPU, a memory, a transceiver, an antenna, a baseband controller, a baseband interface, an Input/Output port, a wireless port, a Bluetooth output, an infra-red port, a serial port, a USB port and data acquisition circuitry.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the apparatus is employed as a writing implement.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the computation circuitry provides at least one of proportional normalization of velocity, identifies minimum motion points, normalizes at least a portion of the acceleration indicating output to a level of an average of a first few samples of the acceleration indicating output, and determining a last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output and eliminates samples following the last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the apparatus for handwriting recognition provides a multiple character recognition output indication which includes at least one of: compressing the velocity indicating output, separately analyzing information for the x and y velocity components, analyzing the directions of the velocity, calculating velocity thresholds, digitizing velocity components, comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a digitized velocity record and using only part of the digitized velocity record, comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a few different representation forms of digitized velocity using a prioritization procedure which takes place in case of disagreement between different comparing and matching results, filtering out short duration segments of the velocity components, indicating velocity value changes and ignoring time durations between the changes, performing a merger operation on velocity segments and binarizing velocity segments.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the hand motion tracker provides at least one of a three-dimensional tracking output indication, a two-dimensional tracking output indication and a character tracking output indication.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for handwriting recognition. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output, and receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes at least one of a computation related to the character recognition output indication, a database operation related to the character recognition output indication, communication of character recognition output indication and a control operation based on the character recognition output indication.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the velocity indicating output is further proportionally normalized.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes normalizing at least a portion of the acceleration indicating output to a level of the average of the first few samples of the acceleration indicating output.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method further includes determining a last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output and eliminating samples following the last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output.
Preferably determining of the last intentional motion sample includes examining a record of the output of at least one of the acceleration sensors in order to determine the average of the last few samples, thereafter, examining the record sequentially from the last few samples backwards in time direction until a variation from the average of at least a predetermined magnitude is encountered and determining a time location of this variation to be the time location of the last intentional motion.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method of providing a velocity indicating output further includes identification of minimum motion points.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes providing a multiple character recognition output indication includes compressing the velocity indicating output.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method further includes providing a multiple character recognition output indication and includes separately analyzing information for the X and Y velocity components,
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes providing a multiple character recognition output indication includes analyzing directions of the velocity.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method includes providing a multiple character recognition output indication and includes comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and digitized velocity record using only part of the digitized velocity.
Alternatively the providing a multiple character recognition output indication includes comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a few different representation forms of digitized velocity using a prioritization procedure which takes place in case of disagreement between different comparing and matching results.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method further includes at least one of filtering out short duration segments of the velocity components, performing a merger operation on velocity segments and binarizing operation on velocity segments.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes providing a multiple character recognition output indication includes calculating velocity thresholds.
Preferably calculating of velocity thresholds further includes dependency of the thresholds on the minimum and maximum values of the velocity components.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method includes digitizing velocity components to provide digitized information.
Preferably the method also includes analyzing the digitized information for the velocity components to detect value changes therein, indicating each such change and ignoring time durations between changes.
There is also provided in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for handwriting recognition. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output and receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication.
There is also provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present a method for hand motion tracking. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a proportionally normalized velocity indicating output and receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a tracking output indication.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes providing a tracking indicating output includes at least one of representing a multi-dimensional object, representing drawing in the air, representing drawing in on a surface, representing a character tracking in the air, and representing a character tracking on a surface.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method further includes indicating at least one of a computation based on the tracking output, operating a database on the tracking output indication, indicating communication of tracking output and a control operations based on the tracking output indications.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also includes normalizing at least a portion of the acceleration indicating output to a level of the average of the first few samples of the acceleration indicating output.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method further includes determining the last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output and eliminating samples following the last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output,
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, determining of the last intentional motion sample includes examining a record of the output of at least one of the acceleration sensors in order to determine the average of the last few samples, thereafter, examining the record sequentially from the last few samples backwards in time direction until a variation from the average of at least a predetermined magnitude is encountered and determining a time location of this variation to be the time location of the last intentional motion.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the method also provided a velocity indicating output further includes identification of minimum motion points.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for hand motion tracking. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output and receiving the non-user specific output and providing a tracking output indication.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output, receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication and receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication.
There is further provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a method for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking. The method includes providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device, receiving the acceleration indicating output, discarding user specific components therein and providing a non-user specific output and receiving the non-user specific output and providing a character recognition output indication.